Standing at the pulpit, Nancy Baptiste led her congregation in reciting not amens or hymns, but the number most public housing tenants have committed to memory:

7-1-8-7-0-7-7-7-7-1

That’s the phone number New York City Housing Authority, or NYCHA, tenants call when something needs to be fixed. Too often, Baptiste said, no one shows up, the wrong work gets done, or the maintenance crew makes the problem worse.

“Enough is enough,” said Baptiste, who lives in Canarsie’s Bayview Houses. “It’s time for the mayor to show up and be accountable. Give NYCHA the money it needs to finish the work, hire enough staff to get the job done right, and make sure they’re properly supervised so the work is completed.”

A shortage of coat donations amid the frigid winter has left some of the city’s most vulnerable residents without the bare necessities.

New York Cares is out of coats after distributing the last of its 75,000 stock on Feb. 6, according to Katherine Kientiz, a service events officer for the charity. That number fell far short of the 103,000 requests for coats that came from the 480 public and private groups to which New York Cares supplies outerwear, Kienitz added.

Residents of the Grant and Manhattanville housing projects in west Harlem have been subjected to a deadly gang rivalry spanning generations. This past June, the New York Police Department unleashed a squad of more than 500 police officers to raid the housing complexes and make arrests.

Six months later, the alleged gang members – ages 15 to 30 – wait to receive their sentences Wednesday. The NYPD maintains that arresting more than 100 potentially violent criminals in one fell swoop was a triumph.

Family, friends and neighbors wonder if this is simply a stopgap solution.

This story was reported in conjunction with the New York Daily News as part of theStop the Mold project, funded in part by the first Challenge Fund for Innovation in Journalism Education. Contributors include Allegra Abramo, Natalie Abruzzo, Julia Alsop, Frank Green, Gwynne Hogan, Ross Keith, Roxanne Scott, Melisa Stumpf and Maria Villasenor.